Earlier product news

For the electronic forms that run your business, it’s probably not such a good idea to use a hosted forms service like JotForm. Just ask the 700,000 users of JotForm who just lost access to all their two million web forms for two days. Using an external service provider exposes you to unpredictable shutdowns.

Two days ago, the Jotform.com website was suddenly removed without warning from the Internet’s global Domain Name System (DNS), effectively making over two million electronic forms unreachable for its 700,000 users and their customers.

The Jotform.com website allows users to design electronic forms and host them on the company’s servers. Jotform’s domain name registrar, GoDaddy, informed Jotform that the shutdown was the result of a fraud investigation by the Secret Service.

A Jotform spokesman said that the company regularly closes accounts that create false web forms for fraudulent activities, e.g. attempts to fool bank customers into submitting their login credentials. According to Ars Technica, Jotform considered it “hugely unfair” to shut down the entire domain, without notice, for something a user had done even after protections were in place against it.

“We have 2 million user generated forms. It is not possible for us to manually review all forms. This can happen to any web site that allows user generated content”, said a company spokesman in a blog on the company’s website.

According to CNET, sites like YouTube and Facebook that are service providers are not liable for content their users post that may violate copyright or face other objections. It’s unclear why the case of JotForm, which would seem to fit the description of service provider, was handled this way.

Jotform has moved its domain names from GoDaddy to two other Internet registrars.

Published on Feb 17, 2012.

We recently made version 6 of SpreadsheetConverter available on the website. A new user interface makes it much easier to insert widgets and adjust their properties. The new version also allows you to generate web pages for different environments.

We’re proud to introduce SpreadsheetConverter version 6 for immediate download from the download page. The new version adds a Settings panel where you can insert graphical widgets into a live calculator or smart web form. Using menus, sliders and calendars makes your web page much easier to use.

The old conversion wizard is gone for good. You can now change all the settings for a spreadsheet directly in the Settings panel, before you run the conversion. All the settings are saved with the spreadsheet, and used again for the next conversion.

You can install any number of flavors of the product simultaneously to support more than one web environment. When you press Convert, you can choose between generating HTML with Javascript, Flash, HTML5 for iPhone and Android smartphones or asp/aspx files for Windows web servers.

Read more on the version 6 news page.

Published on Feb 1, 2012.

SpreadsheetConverter iPhone/Android is now in public beta test. Show instant quotes on iPhone or Android smartphones. Provide powerful mobile data entry services, mobile form applications or web calculators that work even when the smartphone is offline.

The latest member of the SpreadsheetConverter family allows you to convert Excel spreadsheets to iPhone format, giving Apple smartphones the ability to run spreadsheets and smart forms converted from Microsoft Excel in the Office desktop environment.

The new version can also convert Excel spreadsheets for use in Android smartphones from Nokia, Samsung, LG, ZTE, HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Huawei and other manufacturers.

Spreadsheets can be used as templates for smartphone calculators and smart forms for business, finance, engineering or personal life. Examples:

• Report errors in vehicles
• As a reporting tool for a mystery shopper
• To order the right type of fan for a broken air conditioning device
• Configure a city bus
• Take an order
• Register survey responses
• Prepare an instant quote
• Evaluate an offer
• Calculate technical requirements
• Measure network capacity
• Visualize the interest rate of an annuity
• Determine lightning requirements.

Read the full SpreadsheetConverter iPhone/Android product description.

Participate in the beta test.

Please do not test smartphone calculators with your desktop browser. The smartphone calculators are heavily optimized for the smartphone’s small and narrow screen and usually look ugly on a wide screen. To understand the full power of smartphone calculators or smart forms, you must open them in the smartphone environment they are part of.

See examples of what SpreadsheetConverter iPhone/Android can do for you.

Published on June 4, 2011.

March 16, 2011: Creating calculating web forms for Microsoft ASP.NET pages just became a lot easier. This new tool version adds many graphical web widgets that can make your smart web forms even smarter.

SpreadsheetConverter ASP.NET version 5 offers new graphical widgets like checkboxes, dropdown lists, radio buttons and calendars. This makes it easier to create attractive, calculating web forms for Microsoft web servers.

The SpreadsheetConverter ASP.NET plug-in for Microsoft Excel converts ordinary spreadsheets into smart web forms. All calculations are performed on Internet Information Server (IIS) by ready-made ASP.NET code that supports almost all Excel’s functions.

The new version 5 recently introduced a number of new features, including a large selection of graphical widgets to make smart web forms easier to use.

We never know the correct way to enter a date on an international web site, but we can always pick the right date from a calendar. The new calendar widget is our personal favorite.

With the new version, it’s easier to use a checkbox instead of a yes/no text field. To select one of two or more alternatives, there are dropdown menus, list boxes and radio buttons.

For numeric fields, a new slider widget provides data entry in real time. Every time you move the slider, the value in the cell changes and the spreadsheet is recalculated. Used together with a live chart, sliders make it much easier to find “sweet spots” like optimum price levels. For social networking, there is also a rating widget with three or more stars.

Adding interaction and functionality to a web form is much easier with the new Button widget. Buttons can be linked to any web address, e.g. a help page or a contact form. Special buttons are used in Accordion, Wizard and Panel designs to move between sections in a multi-part form.

Data entry Wizard

Like its predecessor, SpreadsheetConverter version 5 also provides a Submit button to send a completed form for processing.

The product comes with free, hosted forms processing. Submitted forms end up in a predefined e-mail Inbox. We also offer a fee-based, hosted service where forms are stored on our servers and retrieved on demand.

Learn how to get web forms directly to your Inbox for free.

Published on March 16, 2011.

December 29, 2010: When you create a web form with Excel, you get high-quality responses with all required information present and correct. With little training, any Excel user can build advanced graphical web forms that require much less manual labor to process.

The SpreadsheetConverter add-on to Microsoft Excel lets you automatically convert spreadsheets to live web pages. This enables you to design complex, calculating web forms in the familiar Excel environment.

Web forms are basically tables with rows and columns, just like spreadsheets. For each field in the form, you can insert a graphical widget to simplify data entry. Use a calendar for dates, a list box for options or a checkbox for yes/no.

Using Excel, you specify the relationship between cells using simple formulas. If one cell contains a quantity and another the unit price, it’s simple to multiply them to display the resulting item price directly in an order form. SpreadsheetConverter retains these formulas in the converted web page, so that prices in the web form are immediately recalculated as quantities are entered into the form.

Creating a smart web form this way is no different from creating a spreadsheet. If you know the basics of Excel, you know how to design powerful, calculating forms for the web.

Validating forms before submission

Processing submitted forms can require extensive manual labor. All fields in the form must conform to business rules such as being an integer, having a value within a certain range or picking a value from a list. Excel allows you to validate most of the form fields already while the user is typing. SpreadsheetConverter adds a few clever features, like the ability to specify that certain fields are mandatory. If you must have an account number to process a form, just make the account number field mandatory in the form.

When a web form is built this way, it can be delivered for processing without any information missing. All fields contain valid information, and the user has confirmed also the calculated values like total price and shipping cost.

Delivering forms across the web is another handy feature added by SpreadsheetConverter. When a form has been filled in, it can be sent directly to a preset e-mail address. It can also be stored securely in a database for later retrieval, separately or in a batch. Basic form delivery is a free, hosted service that requires no programming or other IT resources.

Learn how to get web forms directly to your Inbox for free.

Published on December 29, 2010

What does it take to create an interactive web form that reads data off a Windows server? Well, if you can create a prototype in Excel, SpreadsheetConverter ASP.Net version 5 converts your prototype into a full-fledged Windows server application.

The SpreadsheetConverter add-on to Microsoft Excel lets you automatically convert Excel spreadsheets to live web pages, with all calculations performed by separate server components running in the Internet Information Server (IIS) on any Windows server.

The conversion to web format retains the interactivity that is typical of a spreadsheet, and the entire visual layout is carried over to the web page.

All calculations are performed on the server by separate ASP.Net or classic ASP modules, freeing the browser from the workload required to do all the computations. This enables the browser to handle complex user interface logic even for very large web pages.

Our primary asset is a standard library of functions that correspond to what you can do in Excel. If it can be done in Excel, it can now easily be ported to a client/server web environment.

A classic disadvantage of moving workload to a server is that the user is forced to enter all information at once, press a “send” button, then wait until the server responds. With version 5 of SpreadsheetConverter ASP.Net, the browser can communicate each little change separately to the server with asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX). While the user moves on to edit the next field in the form, the server dynamically instructs the browser to update any fields or charts that were affected by the previous data entry.

AJAX has been around since 2005 and is pretty much standard fare these days. Even Google uses it, in Gmail and Google Maps, and it’s supported in smartphones.

Since a portion of the web page resides on the server, it’s much easier to fetch data in a database, e.g. the current interest rate, or interact with other server applications. Read all the details in our Tutorials section.

SpreadsheetConverter products have published spreadsheets on the web since 2002, with formula calculation in JavaScript, Flash. ASP.Net or Java. To test-drive any of these products, visit the Download page.

Published on Sept 13, 2010.

February 15, 2010: We’re proud to introduce our new SpreadsheetConverter Flash product. It converts an Excel spreadsheet to a single Adobe Flash file, perfect for integration with your own web site. Download the beta and see it in action!

The first beta of the Flash flavor is based on SpreadsheetConverter 5.1.24 and therefore inherits that version number. There are a few obvious omissions in the first beta:For multisheet workbooks, you can only get sheet tabs; there is currently no support for advanced layouts like panels or forms wizard.

• The Calendar advanced control is not fully supported, and we recommend that you use standard pop-up calendars when testing the beta.
• The Rating advanced control is unsupported.

A production version of SpreadsheetConverter Flash is expected to be ready before April 2010.

Follow the birth of the new SpreadsheetConverter sibling on the SpreadsheetConverter Flash product page.

Published on February 15, 2010.

We’ve been so impressed by what our customers accomplish with SpreadsheetConverter. To reward your creativity, we recently opened a showcase of customer achievements. Have a look at what people like yourself are doing with SpreadsheetConverter. You’ll certainly be impressed, but we hope you’ll also be inspired!

The magic of SpreadsheetConverter lies not only in what it does in itself, but its ability to move great forms and spreadsheets to the web. This liberates the power of the Excel platform and makes its products available for any visitor, anywhere, anytime.

horndalewinery.com.au

The Horndale Distillery & Wine Cellars is one of the oldest working vineyards/wineries in the Adelaide region, located in the southern Adelaide suburb of Happy Valley in South Australia. With the help of modern computer technology, they’ve made it very simple to order your favorite Riesling, Merlot or Tawny Port.

Using an intelligent web form, visitors can not only calculate the final cost for their order, they can also submit the order directly. Have a look at the Horndale Distillery & Wine Cellars order form.

But wait, there’s more, quite a lot more in fact. To browse through the full collection of customer achivements on display here on our website, head over to the new showcase page.

Published on November 2, 2009.

The first official version of SpreadsheetConverter HTML version 5 is now available for download in both Standard and Professional editions. The upgrade costs $50 per license and can be ordered now. For only $120 more, users of the Standard edition also get the additional features of the Professional edition.

This morning we proudly uploaded SpreadsheetConverter HTML version 5.1.8, which is the first non-beta release of version 5. This ends the beta program and we wish to express our most sincere thanks to all the beta testers that helped us iron out the last remaining wrinkles in the new version.

For more information about version 5, read the introduction to the new features in version 5.

Upgrading to version 5

Users eligible for a free upgrade to the HTML flavor of version 5 have already been sent new license keys. This includes users who bought version 4 during 2009.

For remaining users of the HTML flavor, the upgrade to version 5 costs $50. Please e-mail support to request the upgrade or if you need more information. To shorten the handling process, please include the current license keys you want to upgrade in the e-mail.

Step up to the Professional edition

When you upgrade to version 5, you should consider stepping up to the Professional edition at the same time. In comparison with the Standard edition of SpreadsheetConverter, the Professional edition:

• remembers the unique conversion options for each spreadsheet
• supports extra chart types
• can convert additional Excel functions
• allows for conversion of bigger workbooks
• includes a six-month license for the Advanced Submit Service
• allows you to redistribute your webpage outside your own organization

Read more about the differences between the Standard and Professional editions in the Standard vs Pro feature comparison.

To upgrade from any previous version of SpreadsheetConverter HTML, Standard edition, to version 5, Professional edition, costs $170. Please e-mail support to request the upgrade or if you need more information. To shorten the handling process, please include the current license keys you want to upgrade in the e-mail.

Flash, ASP.NET and Java/JSP flavors

May update: A Flash version of SpreadsheetConverter is available since the end of May and is built on version 5. We expect the ASP.NET flavor to be available in August. A release date for the Java/JSP flavor has not yet been set.
Published on October 30, 2009.

We were always among the best when it came to supporting Excel forms. With the Advanced Submit Service, we send you not only the plain contents of a form, but the whole form exactly as it looked on the server when the visitor entered data into it. You can also have the Advanced Submit Service store submitted forms on our server until you download them all at once in the file format of your choice.

The standard forms processor simply sends the contents of each form to your Inbox as a plain text e-mail. With the fee-based Advanced Submit Service, the e-mail instead contains the whole form, maintaining the original form layout from the web server.

The Advanced Submit Service allows you store submitted forms in a database for later retrieval. This is extra useful when the volume of submitted forms makes it impractical to handle each form separately. When you want to process a batch of forms, you just download all the saved forms at the same time. You can download the forms data as a spreadsheet or in several other file formats.

Downloading forms from the server to your personal computer doesn’t erase them from the server. This makes it easy to create tailored downloads, e.g. “all forms that were submitted last week”. An advanced filtering mechanism allows you to select exactly what forms to download based on their contents, using an AutoFilter mechanism similar to the one in Excel.

For more information, visit the Advanced Submit Service page.

Published on October 20, 2009.

Couple photo © 2005 iStockphoto.com and Ravi Tahilramani, New Delhi, India.

September 14, 2009: SpreadsheetConverter version 5 adds many new user interface features like calendars, sliders and ratings. We have improved the charts considerably, not to mention the enhanced submit process with support for hidden and required fields, built-in spam protection and much more.

• New graphical widgets: For many kinds of information, there’s always the risk of errors when entering something into a form. This is why we’ve always supported graphical user interface things like dropdown lists and checkboxes. In version 5 you can create an even better user experience, e.g. by using radio buttons when you have just a few alternatives, list boxes when there are a lot of alternatives, calendars to select dates, stars to set ratings and sliders to vary data in real-time.
• Enhanced charting: For long, we’ve been really proud over our dynamic charts that automatically update as you modify a spreadsheet. In version 5 we introduce new chart types like stacked bar and line charts, more formatting options and support for charts with Excel 2007.
• Improved handling of multiple worksheets: If your workbook has more than one sheet, SpreadsheetConverter can create a tab for each sheet, or you can use a panel or “accordion”-style layout that hides all worksheets except the ones you’re currently working with.
• Data entry wizard: Sometimes it’s useful to move through a complex web form one step at a time. The new data entry wizard uses Next and Previous buttons to allow the visitor to advance step-by-step through the form, completing one section after the other. Each sheet in the workbook becomes a separate step in the wizard. To make it easier to navigate within the wizard, small “breadcrumbs” link to the next and preceding step.
• Enhancements to the Professional Edition: The Professional Edition allows you to redistribute your webpage outside your own organization. It supports conversion of additional Excel functions, extra chart types and bigger workbooks, and remembers the unique conversion options for each sheet. A six-month license for the Advanced Submit Service is included in the price of the Pro edition. Read more about the differences between the Standard and Professional editions in the Standard vs Pro feature comparison.
• Advanced options for form submission: When a spreadsheet is used as a web form, it can also be submitted through our free submit service, sending each completed form as an e-mail to your Inbox. Version 5 makes it possible to make form fields mandatory, i.e. the form cannot be submitted as long as the required fields are empty. The new version also adds support for hidden cells that can be used to convey background information like session or user identities, network addresses or timestamps to a background forms processing script. Finally, SpreadsheetConverter now comes with built-in spam protection, preventing spammers from submitting irrelevant forms automatically.
• Updated Advanced Submit Service: The fee-based Advanced Submit Service allows you to store submitted forms on our server until you download them all at once in the file format of your choice. With the Advanced Submit Service, we send you not only the plain contents of a form, but the whole form exactly as it looked on the server when the visitor entered data into it.

Read more about the new version in the version 5 feature summary.

Published on September 14, 2009.

Under certain conditions, charts converted by SpreadsheetConverter may stop working. An error message says “Can’t show chart without Flash Player 6 or later” also for users with later versions of the Flash player installed. The simplest solution is to upgrade to version 4.4 or higher and update your web pages.

Web pages converted by SpreadsheetConverter may stop working under the following conditions:

• your web page uses charts
• your web page was converted to web format with SpreadsheetConverter 4.3 or earlier
• the visitor is browsing your website with Firefox, Opera, Safari or any other non-Microsoft browser (the error does not affect Internet Explorer)
• the visitor has installed the Adobe Flash player 10 or later

The symptoms of the error is that charts don’t appear, and instead a message appears saying “Can’t show chart without Flash Player 6 or later”, even though a later version of Flash is actually installed in the browser.

Making your web charts work with Flash 10

The problem occurs because of a programming error in SpreadsheetConverter that was solved in version 4.4. The easiest way to make your web pages work correctly under the conditions above is to upgrade to version 4.4 of SpreadsheetConverter and regenerate the web pages that use charts.

For more information and alternative solutions to the problem, read the error report Using charts in non-Microsoft browsers with Flash 10 or later.

Note: even if you’ve upgraded to SpreadsheetConverter 4.4 or later, your web pages will still fail until you update all web pages that fulfil the above criteria.

Published on August 20, 2009.

Getting too many hits when using the normal search engines? Try our specialized search engine, powered by Google. It will only search in high-quality Excel sites, giving you much better search results than anywhere else.

Sometimes we get really tired of search engines. They return too many results, and sometimes you have to wonder about the miracles of ranking – “why did this end up at the top of the list?”

Fortunately, Google has made it possible to create specialized search engines. So we went ahead and used their service to create the best search engine for Excel searches.

There’s no real magic to it. We just gathered a list of established, really really useful Excel sites, and told Google Custom Search to narrow its search to just the sites on our list.

The beauty of it is that you can now search our search engine for very generic things like “naming cells”, and still get only a manageable number of hits, of which most will actually be about Microsoft Excel.

The next time you’re searching the web for Excel stuff, just visit our specialized search form for Excel websites.

We hope you will profit from our effort and that it will save you time. If you need assistance or wish to add a site to the list, just drop us an e-mail at support@spreadsheetconverter.com.

Published on July 14, 2009.

March 15, 2009: We’ve made it even easier to see what’s new over here. If Twitter is one of your natural hang-outs, join us there.

Twitter describes itself as “a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.” We’d be inclined to call it a micro-blog that’s all about now.

Basically, Twitter asks one question, “What are you doing?” Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web.

So, if you want to keep up with what we’re doing now, just follow us on Twitter. It’s free and it can let you in on things you wouldn’t otherwise know were happening.

To join us on Twitter, please visit http://twitter.com/excel2web/.

Published on March 15, 2009.